


Brothers and Sisters

by tzzzz



Series: Roo'verse [10]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Universe, Episode Related, Love Triangles, M/M, Mpreg, Unplanned Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-13
Updated: 2013-02-13
Packaged: 2017-11-29 03:11:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/682056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tzzzz/pseuds/tzzzz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Back on Atlantis, Rodney gets a visit from an unwelcome guest.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Brothers and Sisters

“He seemed okay to you?” Rodney demanded, knowing it was pathetic, but he was completely incapable of doing otherwise. He hated John for making him feel like an idiot just for caring.

“Aye,” Carson replied. “The labor went very smoothly, considering the circumstances. There were no complications from the Pasteur rupture, so far as I could tell, and Colonel Sheppard came through it fine, not to mention less dramatically than I’ve seen. My rotation at the Guild hospital was drama enough to last a lifetime. But, I must admit, John’s father is not the most pleasant man.”

John had rarely mentioned his father, but Rodney had already suspected he was an asshole. But to be enough of an asshole for _Carson_ not to like him must deserve an award, considering that Carson liked Rodney and he wasn’t always the nicest guy.

Rodney didn’t want to sound too desperate for details, but on the other hand, he _was_ desperate. Despite his best efforts, a part of him admitted that he’d fallen in love with John Sheppard. And, even though he had no real reason to, he’d grown to love the baby as well. Screw John for not loving him back. And screw John for making Rodney beg Carson for scraps of information when they were supposed to be having a “continuing thing,” whatever the hell that was supposed to mean.

“But John seemed okay? I mean, not held hostage by that thug who knocked him up?”

Carson rolled his eyes. “Cameron Mitchell seems to be a very sweet man, Rodney. I know you’re jealous, but he is the baby’s donor and he wouldn’t hurt a hair on Colonel Sheppard’s head.”

“That’s only because his hair is the most indestructible part of him,” Rodney grumbled.

That startled a chuckle out of Carson, but he still didn’t relent. “Besides, as I told you before, if you were determined to be paranoid, you could’ve always come with me if you had wanted. You were listed as Colonel Sheppard’s labor proxy.”

Rodney shook his head vigorously. He would’ve gone in a heartbeat if John had asked. But he hadn’t asked. He was probably too busy being swept off his feet by Captain America. “He didn’t need me there. Besides, if I hadn’t been all by myself here, I wouldn’t have been able to catch those idiots Hewston and Watson before they blew themselves up with an exploding tumor machine, of all things.”

“So you worked on your day off?” Carson asked, looking pinched and sounding concerned.

“I saved two idiots from themselves! Besides, you were working too.”

“I went to Earth.”

“To take care of one of your patients, as his doctor. That’s working.”

“Fine. We’re both workaholics. How about next Sunday we take the day and go fishing?”

“I hate you,” Rodney moaned, storming off.

The thing was, now that he thought about it, John wasn’t the type to ask Rodney to come for him. He hadn’t asked for help when he was getting beat up by a 10,000 year old Wraith or when he had the Athosian flu or when his shower had been broken for five weeks and only Ronon mentioning that John only seemed to shower in the gym had tipped Rodney off. Maybe this was one of those times when Rodney was supposed to read John’s mind and just be there for him, the way he always had been for every other Sheppard-related crises. What if he’d just spectacularly screwed up?

He rushed back to his quarters to check his inbox from the databurst. Even though John was even less of the type to write Rodney explaining that he’d been disappointed than he was to ask for help, maybe it would provide some clue.

There was one message from John Sheppard. Rodney had to take a few deep breaths to calm himself before clicking it. It was a video message.

John looked happy, but tired. His hair was a little flat from sweat and sleep, but his grin looked as though it would split his face in two. Rodney had never seen him so happy. It almost broke his heart.

“Hi, Rodney,” John said, adjusting the camera a little, with a flirtatious smile, as though something as stupid as his inability to get his face in the frame was cute. “Just wanted to give you the good news. The baby transferred. You probably figured that out from Carson the second he stepped through the gate, but I wanted to tell you personally.”

He smiled again and Rodney wondered if post-partum hormones could make normally laconic colonels look downright giddy.

“It was amazing. He was really quick and he’s already strong. As strong as a neonate can be, I think. Cam wanted to send you the video, but I didn’t know if you’d want to see that. If you do, we can always send it. Mrs. Mitchell wants to post it on the baby blog she started for us.” John looked utterly disturbed by the idea, which proved that he was at least still moderately sane and not brainwashed by the painfully perky Mitchell clan.

“I can show you what the pouch looks like now. It’s already started to close,” John pulled up his shirt. The slit didn’t look any different, but Rodney supposed it must feel different to John. “It feels weird. I can’t feel him suckling, but I can feel him move around a little bit. It almost tickles, but Dad says that will go away eventually.” John gave another aw-shucks grin. Maybe Rodney spoke too soon. Perhaps the Mitchells _were_ rubbing off on him.

“My cast won’t come off for another two weeks, so I’m still grounded. Not that I’m going to go offworld. But I won’t even be able to take Colonel Carter’s motorcycle out for a spin. She offered.” He winked, blatantly teasing Rodney about his once-upon-a-time crush. “If Cam wasn’t taking time off to play video games and drive me to random Colorado Springs landmarks, I think I might go a little crazy. I can’t even play golf.” John pouted. Rodney didn’t even bother to pretend that wasn’t a cute look on him.

“We’re having the Registration ceremony the week after I get my cast off, so my brother can make it. His dominus domi is in the oil business and they’re going to lobby at some big climate change conference the following week. Cam and I can’t decide on names. If he can suggest Cal after his great uncle, then I can suggest Han after my great, great, great grandfather long ago in a galaxy far, far away.”

That prompted a snort from Rodney. He almost responded to the computer screen, even though he realized that John was thousands of light-years away and just pulling his leg.

“Let me know if you have any _reasonable_ naming suggestions that I can use to counter the Mitchell family history of pathetic Depression Era names.”

“I know the city will keep you busy without me. Just,” John paused, the grin fading from his face to be replaced with the serious look of the Colonel beneath, “make sure that you’re all still alive and standing when I get back.”

John leaned forward to turn off the screen but the stopped, his smug little boy smirk appearing again out of the blue. “I almost forgot. Cam says he saw a J. McKay on the passenger manifest for the Apollo’s maiden voyage out there. It looks like you’re right: your sister won’t keep her hands off your toys.”

Rodney cursed, “Damnit!” He loved his sister, but no matter how much John wanted to trivialize Rodney’s childhood trauma, it was true - his sister always wanted to encroach on his territory. It started with tantrums about not being able to pee standing up like her brother and culminated in following him into the fields of astrophysics and engineering, even though Rodney had politely left her all of chemistry, biology, and even computer science (though he excelled at that, too) to play in. She would’ve made an excellent doctor (she didn’t have Rodney’s sympathy vomiting problem and also didn’t think she had every disease she ever studied), but no, she had to get the exact same two PHDs as Rodney and do it while she was carrying Madison and Bradley, just to show Rodney up. Rodney suspected that her committee had gone easy on her because she’d been ready to pop when she defended. That was the only rational explanation for how she’d done it in a semester less than Rodney.

Rodney had finally managed to get away from her and into classified work, which she was forced to eschew because her hippy-dippy stay-at-home husband didn’t approve of it. That was definitely the only reason Rodney didn’t send Mr. Vegan a Dean and Deluca ham every Christmas. But then one of her students had taken a Youtube video of Jeannie madly solving equations for a matter bridge on what looked like every whiteboard in the school as part of some CalTech recruitment stunt and then suddenly Samantha Carter was having her gated out to Pegasus to work with Rodney to invade the last thing that Rodney considered his own. She’d even flirted with John, despite the fact that he was an imperial and she was _married_. The only saving grace was that Rodney had been able to get her shipped home when the whole energy bridge thing went horribly wrong, just as he had predicted.

Things just never seemed to go right for Rodney.

He pulled up his email. Call him old fashioned, but he preferred composing an email to sending John a video response. His genius couldn’t be contained in video and he could occasionally ramble. Better to put his best foot forward.

_John:_

_I’m happy the transfer went well. I was never worried about the kid being strong. With a donor who’s all muscle and no brains, it shouldn’t have been a concern. He’s just lucky that he has a glimmer of a chance of inheriting some intelligence from you._

_You should stay away from those Mitchells and their baby blogs. I have never heard something more idiotic. Do you want your kid’s friends to be able to google video of him crawling up his father’s naked body when he’s at prime teasing age? You’ll probably be one of those hot dads who all his friends have a crush on, which will make the whole you naked thing that much more embarrassing._

_So what if you’re bored. The pouting isn’t cute. It’s better than being surrounded by idiots who keep trying to blow themselves up on a daily basis. I am not exaggerating. Two of my scientists literally were minutes away from death by exploding tumor! Also, in two weeks you’ll have your cast off and will be able to engage in whatever highly-reckless sport you desire, and I’ll be stuck here with my glory hound of a sister trying to discredit me at every turn. Also, she might finally succeed in blowing us all up when all others have failed. She’s ambitious that way._

_Can you at least find out what she’s up to? The Apollo will get here a day after the next databurst, so there’s no reason why you can’t send me detailed information. It’s very important. She’s dangerous. Obviously, she’s nowhere near as smart as I am, but she’s not so stupid that I can catch her mistakes at a glance._

Rodney considered adding something like ‘I miss you’ or ‘I love you’ or ‘do you want me to come to the Registration Ceremony’ but instead he wrote:

_For names I suggest: Kirk, Wayland, Wrigley, Rhubarb, Ignatius, Spot, and Rodney._

Rodney couldn’t bring himself to suggest names John might actually consider. He didn’t want anything to do with John and the baby deedee’s cute expecting couple naming contest. In fact, he’d rather not think about it.

_I promise the city will still be standing when you get back, so long as the lab monkeys don’t give me a coronary from shock when I discover their next new low when it comes to intelligence._

_Rodney McKay, Phd., Phd._

Rodney put the email into the compression queue for the databurst and sighed. If Jeannie wasn’t hurtling his way like an extinction-level meteor, he might have decided to just show up to the baby’s Registration Ceremony. He’d been dragged along to many Registrations with his father when he was a child, so he doubted this one would provide anything new and interesting. In fact, he could see a prominent family like the Sheppards managing to make something archaic and boring even more stuffy and pretentious. Still, it would be _John’s_ ceremony and that might make all the difference. John wouldn’t have mentioned it if he really didn’t want Rodney to come. In fact, it might even be a subtle John Sheppard way of asking Rodney to come. But now that the Little Terror was coming to Atlantis, Rodney would have to stay and defend his territory.

***

Rodney paced the mezzanine above the Gateroom nervously, ignoring the distracted way Buck, the gate technician, kept staring at him. Finally, Elizabeth came out of her office and placed a firm hand on his shoulder. “Rodney, you’re making me seasick.”

“Sure,” Rodney grumbled. “You’re the one who called in the wicked, alternate-universe-destroying witch.”

“Rodney!” Elizabeth managed scandalized with a Victorian grace that Rodney could appreciate, if not understand. “She’s your sister!”

“I know. That’s how I know that she’s a dangerous, conniving, glory-mongering, arrogant egomaniac who will get people killed if let outside of a classroom.”

“Doesn’t sound like anyone I know,” Zelenka murmured under his breath. Rodney chose to ignore him. He was only in the control room because he had a crush on Jeannie, which was silly, considering that she was married and her tastes ran to the pretty, poetic and useless types. Rodney’s argument that she was his sister, which made Zelenka’s crush too close to a crush on a female Rodney, didn’t change Zelenka’s mind at all. In fact, it only caused Radek to reply that he might have a crush on Rodney too if he were as attractive and _nice_ as Jeannie.

Rodney glared at Zelenka on his way down the stairs with Elizabeth. Teyla and Ronon were both conspicuously absent. Ronon was setting up an obstacle course on the mainland for Lorne to do some of the ‘team building’ exercises that John hated (mostly because he hated publicly losing to Ronon) and always scheduled for when he was off-base. And Teyla was still in the infirmary after that awful Michael debacle, but at least Ronon had killed the bastard.

“I don’t appreciate you going behind my back on this, Elizabeth,” Rodney said, well aware that Jeannie was already on the long flight to Atlantis, and no amount of complaining would change it.

“For the last time, Rodney, I didn’t go behind your back. I forwarded a question from one of the programming specialists to Area 51 as your department requested. I couldn’t predict that Colonel Carter would call on your sister.”

“You keep telling yourself that when she succeeds in--”

Rodney was cut off by the soft shimmer of the Asgard beam delivering Jeannie and a man whose uniform identified him as Colonel Ellis.

Jeannie looked just as polished and put together as usual. She wore a tight blue pencil skirt and a pinstriped blouse reminiscent of 1940s nautical fashion. She even indulged in the impracticality of pumps, which no woman on Atlantis ever dared wear. Add to that the curly hair pulled back into a neat bun and the glasses Rodney knew for a fact that Jeannie didn’t technically need and the perfectly made-up face; Jeannie looked liked she’d stepped out of any world-class research institution and not just beamed down from a starship to a military base.

“Welcome back, Dr. McKay,” Elizabeth announced, always the diplomat.

“Thank you, Dr. Weir. But please call me Jeannie.”

Jeannie gave Rodney a hug next. It was tight and cloying with a whiff of perfume and the hint of a challenge. Jeannie always held on until Rodney was forced to awkwardly struggle out of the embrace. She did it because she knew it made him uncomfortable.

“Meredith, I missed you! You barely wrote to me since I came here last!” she complained, giving him a playful punch in the arm.

“Come to destroy another universe?” Rodney countered. He was above physical abuse. For now.

“Hey, it was that or let them reverse the particle stream and kill us first. I still don’t see why we couldn’t try it again, and just send a radio transmission through to make sure the next universe is uninhabited.”

“We already filled all our depleted ZPMs,” Rodney reminded her. “And we got a few more from the Ancients just recently. And also, because it’s completely unethical.”

“Like you’re one to talk! I know exactly what you did to your thesis advisor in order to--”

“At least I didn’t get arrested for industrial espionage!”

“It was an independent idea! CSIS cleared me!”

“Yeah, and Dad cleared you of wetting the bed, but that doesn’t mean that--”

“That’s enough children!” Colonel Ellis roared. “As delightful as it is to hear all of your childhood exploits, we are here on urgent business.”

Elizabeth insisted they discuss all urgent business in the conference room, where Zelenka and Lorne joined them.

Rodney kept glaring at Jeannie, despite her repeated attempts to kick him under the table and make him stop. Colonel Ellis ignored them with practiced military indifference. He continued on with a simple presentation about the growing threat on the replicator homeworld and the armada of ships they were building in order to attempt to take Earth.

“You didn’t think to tell us this sooner?” Elizabeth protested. “It is our lives on the line.”

“I’m briefing you now,” Ellis responded. “The IOA has debated various solutions, but we were lucky to have Dr. McKay, our Doctor McKay,” he indicated Jeannie, “on our side. She’s been working on the PWARW over at Area 51 and it is now ready to deploy.”

“I’m sorry,” Elizabeth interjected. “The PWARW?”

“Planetary Wide Anti-Replicator Weapon,” Jeannie filled it, smiling at Elizabeth the way an elementary school teacher smiled at one of her less bright students. Rodney rolled his eyes. “We’ve managed to develop a large-scale delivery system for the replicator nanite disruption technology. Basically, we generate a field that sends out a pulse of energy that breaks the bonds between nanites, very similar to what you used on the shield in order to take the city back from the Replicators before.”

“You’re talking about wiping out an entire civilization,” Elizabeth protested.

“We’re _talking_ about a calculated first strike,” Ellis countered. “Those ships are headed for Earth if we don’t do something about them. They know about Earth and they have no compunctions about wiping out _our_ civilization. You have to remember that they aren’t people. They’re a weapon.”

“I disagree,” Elizabeth replied. “I think we owe it to ourselves as civilized beings to at least try to negotiate before we eliminate beings capable of thinking, feeling, and changing. They are sentient by any standard I can think of and they deserve to be treated as such.”

“The IOA has orders.”

“And the IOA can punish me as they see fit, but I am charged with protecting this city and our interest in Pegasus. And I have been given the full discretion to do so.”

Rodney could clearly see the moment Colonel Ellis decided to back down. He might have battled the Ori and commanded an intergalactic starship, but Elizabeth had risen through the ranks of Guild society. She knew her politics and she knew power.

“Jeannie,” Elizabeth commanded. “Please forward all of your information on the anti-replicator weapon to my people.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Jeannie replied, just as unable to counter Elizabeth’s will as Ellis.

“Rodney,” her voice cracked like a whip. “My office.”

Rodney followed her out, trying to look as though he was meeting with her of his own volition rather than simply being dragged around.

The second they were alone, Elizabeth sighed. “Will it work?” she asked.

Rodney pulled up the figures Jeannie had sent, though he knew what he would find there. Jeannie wasn’t as smart as Rodney, but she was smarter than most everyone else on Earth, and harmonics and wave energy was her specialty, so of course the device would work.

“The only problem I can see is the fact that it’s a shipboard delivery system, so Ellis needs to be competent to get it fired at the replicator homeworld, but other than that? It’ll disable every replicator on the planet and anything in orbit.”

Elizabeth nodded. “That’s an excellent position to negotiate from, then.”

She walked out and ordered Chuck to dial the Replicators before Rodney could protest.

“Oberoth,” Elizabeth smiled a shark’s smile at the familiar figure that appeared on the screen. Rodney wondered why if he could create his own body he wouldn’t pick someone more handsome. But then again, who knew what an AI considered beautiful. “I wasn’t expecting to see you.”

“We all exist in the collective mind,” he replied placidly. “This physical manifestation can be reproduced as many times as necessary. What do you want, Dr. Weir?”

“We couldn’t help but notice an armada of ships in your construction yards.”

“We have the right to defend ourselves.”

“Those are not defensive warships, Oberoth. We both know it.”

“I admit that they have offensive capabilities. But sometimes the best defense is a calculated strike on an emerging threat.”

“You mean Earth.”

“I mean anyone who threatens our existence. Your people, the Wraith, and there are other, ancient enemies.”

“Well, if you stop construction on your warships and we implement a truce between our peoples, then there will be no threat from Earth. I can guarantee you that.”

“Even if that were the case, you are not the sole reason we seek to enhance our military capabilities.”

“If there is a greater threat in Pegasus, then ally with us to fight it.”

“We know what it means for our kind to ally with organics,” Oberoth replied, betraying the most emotion Rodney had seen on a replicator. “It means to be sword and shield protecting your fragile, worthless bodies.”

That even riled Elizabeth. Rodney observed the slightest flinch in her otherwise poised posture. “Then, I must point out to you that in every conflict between our peoples, my side has emerged victorious.”

“Ah, but it is only a matter of time, Dr. Weir. You are few and we are many. And we can afford to keep--”

Rodney ignored him, absorbed by the suspicious fluctuations in the comm bandwidth. “They’re trying to upload a virus on the comm frequency. I’m holding off for now, but--”

“Shut it down,” Elizabeth snapped.

Rodney hadn’t even noticed that Ellis and Jeannie had followed them into the control room until Ellis cleared his throat pointedly. “We’ve tried your way, Dr. Weir. Now, we’ll try mine.” He activated his radio. “Beam us up.”

Ellis and Jeannie disappeared in a flash.

“That went well,” Rodney commented, realizing too late that there was nobody around who would appreciate his sarcasm.

***

Jeannie reappeared in a flash of light not long afterwards.

“How’d it go?” Rodney asked, trying for nonchalant, unlike Elizabeth, who practically ran out of her office for the control room. “Where’s Captain Ahab?”

“Great skills as a brother, Mer. No ‘nice to see you, glad you didn’t die on a mission to destroy an army of highly intelligent robots?’”

Rodney waved away her concerns. “Please. I knew you’d survive. You’re like a cockroach. No matter how much one of your theories is discredited, you just pop back up.”

“When has one of my theories really been discredited?” Jeannie scoffed, ignoring Rodney’s protests and rounding the control counsel to pull him into a tight hug. “Believe it or not, Mer, I’m happy to see you. And for your information, the mission went wonderfully. The Replicators are no more. Which leaves me almost a full two weeks to see what my big brother is up to.”

“You mean spy on me for the IOA.”

“I mean find out what’s going on in your life.” She gave him another one of those surprisingly strong punches on the arm. “After you got drafted into the SGC, I’ve barely heard from you.” Before that, they hadn’t been close either, but Rodney elected not to remind her of that fact. When Rodney had been in academia, they saw each other at conferences and called to bicker about different theories, but once Rodney’s work had been classified, he’d only seen his sister at the Registration of her two children, when they were inducted into her husband’s Guild. Sometimes Rodney wondered if she’d only married him for his Guild status, but then again, Rodney had never gotten to know him well enough to tell.

“Well, I was busy.”

“Too busy to call?” Jeannie protested.

“Didn’t we have this conversation already?” Rodney complained. They’d had this conversation every Christmas when Rodney remembered to call and then they’d had it the last time Jeannie was here. Rodney didn’t want to see her any more now than he did then.

“Yes, we did. But just because we have different theories of, well, almost everything, doesn’t mean that I don’t love you.”

Rodney was _not_ going to have a big gushy emotional moment in front of his staff. It was probably all part of Jeannie’s secret plan to undermine him. “Look, we’ll discuss this later. Right now, I think we should do the post-mortem on the mission. I’m sure Dr. Weir and the rest of the staff would much rather hear about that than our family history.”

“Actually,” Zelenka interrupted, but he didn’t get a chance to finish because a loud klaxon went off.

“What’s that?” Elizabeth demanded.

Chuck responded quickly. “Proximity alarm. Something’s entered orbit.”

Elizabeth quickly opened a channel to Colonel Ellis. “What is it?”

After a pause, Ellis began. “It looks like a stargate.”

“Dial the gate!” Jeannie ordered. Rodney took a second to think, but he had to agree with her. If it was close enough to the planet then activating the Atlantis stargate would keep it from activating and then give them at least 38 minutes to figure out its purpose.

“Where?” Chuck asked.

“Anywhere,” Rodney and Jeannie snapped in unison.

“Dialing the Alpha Site,” Chuck announced.

Rodney relaxed a fraction as the wormhole engaged. “Get a detailed scan of it,” he commanded Ellis.

Elizabeth didn’t seem to follow, but she quickly asked. “What’s happening?”

“Whatever it is, it clearly uses the stargate as part of its primary function,” Jeannie began.

After a quick look at the preliminary scans, Rodney agreed. “It’s basically just a gate with hyperdrive and maneuvering thrusters.”

“So, by dialing out,” Jeannie concluded. “We prevent it from dialing in and doing whatever it was meant to do. That gives us 38 minutes to figure out what that is and whether we want to stop it.”

“My lab?” Rodney asked Jeannie.

She nodded and they headed off.

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this appeared in orbit immediately after we destroyed the Replicator homeworld,” Jeannie began.

“I don’t either.” Rodney let his anger take over. He’d softened during his time in Atlantis so that only true acts of stupidity would rile him up. But Jeannie had been pushing his buttons for years. He didn’t think he even knew how to restrain himself when she was involved. “I knew it was too good to be true. You always go for the Pie in the Sky option. And you can afford to, because up until recently the only consequences if you are wrong are reassignment of grant funding, a little public humiliation and some wasted paper. But you’re in my world now and if you don’t plan for the worst case scenario, people will die.”

“You think I don’t know that?” Jeannie protested. “Jesus, Rodney. I’m terrified. I can’t do what you do on a daily basis. I’m a professor. I work on whiteboards and take my kids to the beach on the weekends. I’m not cut out for this stuff! But the IOA told me it was a matter of homeworld security so I did this job for them. This _one_ job before I can go back to my normal life.”

Rodney didn’t know if he believed her, but he did know that if he did, then her view of the world was painfully naive. Luckily, it was just as likely that she was lying and that she had asked for that contract just to get back into the cutthroat competitive game they’d been playing since they were kids, when their father would offer them prizes to beat each other at speed solving equations or take the one who came up with the best theory to get ice cream. “There’s no such thing as just one job with the military, Jeannie. We both know it.”

They made it the rest of the way to the lab in silence, then pulled up the more detailed scans that Colonel Ellis had provided. Unfortunately it turned out to be nothing more than a gate with flight capabilities and a shield system.

“I don’t think we’ll be able to figure out its purpose until we see it in action,” Jeannie finally admitted. “Whatever is meant to come through from the other side is what’s important.”

Rodney snapped his fingers in triumph. “But we can tell from the schematics that it’s nanite built. Look at the work. It’s one continuous body of metal - no welding, no screws.”

“So it comes from the replicators.”

“Or another incredibly advanced civilization that uses nanites to build things.”

“I hope that’s not the case, because then--”

“We’ll have yet another incredibly technologically advanced civilization out to get us.” One nice thing about working with Jeannie was that they rarely had to finish their own sentences.

“But how do we know that they’re out to get us?” Jeannie pondered. “Maybe this is a probe sent to communicate with us.”

“We already have a gate,” Rodney pointed out. “They could communicate with us through that.”

“And if it wanted to communicate, it wouldn’t need to be directly above the city.”

Rodney snapped his fingers. “Let’s try something.” He hit his comm. “Chuck, turn on the shipboard engines and give us a little nudge.” They’d just wait a few minutes for the city to move a discernible amount and see if the satellite followed. If it did, then they’d destroy it.

“Shouldn’t we, um, warn everyone first?” Chuck asked.

“Yes, yes, warn people. Move the City. Get on with it.”

After a brief announcement, they felt a slow move.

“Don’t you get sea sick?” Jeannie asked, not falling over in even her ridiculously impractical heals.

“Not since I met John. He tortured the motion sickness out of me.”

“Or maybe your hypochondria.” Jeannie paused a moment and then added. “Or maybe it wasn’t so much torture as enticement. He’s gorgeous.”

Rodney knew he hesitated too long by the predatory gleam in Jeannie’s eye, but managed to cover. “Yes, John Sheppard is, objectively, a fine figure of a man. But, then again, so am I.”

Jeannie snorted. “Yeah right, Mer. We both know you’re no John Sheppard. If I weren’t married, I wouldn’t mind carrying for someone like _that_.”

“Too bad he’s an Imperial,” Rodney crowed. “No babies for you.”

Jeannie shrugged. “I already did my duty to the lineage, if we even have a lineage. It’s you I’m worried about. You seeing anyone?”

Rodney winced. He could lie. Except he was a terrible liar and Jeannie was always the first to see through him. “Not exactly,” he hedged. It was the wrong tactic, considering that it only made Jeannie’s eyes light up with the thrill of a mystery.

“So who is it? C’mon, Mer, I’m your sister.”

Rodney stayed silent.

“Guy or girl? Because I heard a lot of things at the SGC about you chasing poor Colonel Carter, who is a lovely woman by the way, but so far out of your league it’s not even funny. You’ve had your fair share of girlfriends, but I’ve always thought that secretly you wanted a man.”

All those years of strained silence and she still knew him too well.

“I think it’s a man,” Jeannie declared. “And I think you must really like him or you wouldn’t bother with this ‘not exactly’ thing. You’re always the first to brag about meaningless things. It’s only things that mean something to you that you even bother to hide. And it has to be someone on this base because where else have you been to get serious with someone? Not the Gate tech, even though it would be good to stay in a Canadian Guild. And I doubt one of the Marines, despite your tendency to lust after jocks and cheerleaders. Ronon, maybe? He seems to put up with you.”

Jeannie knew that if she was just annoying enough, Rodney would eventually crack. He knew that she used it against him, but he couldn’t help from spluttering, “Ronon! You think I’d be involved with a man mountain who had to be coaxed into using a fork? Yes, he is absolutely the best guy to have around if you get captured by aliens or need someone to retrieve sharp objects out of his hair, or if you want to get into a bar fight, but _seriously, Ronon?!_ He does share my love of mashed potatoes, and we do have a warrior’s bond in blood thing going, but what do you even think we talk about?”

Jeannie raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow at him expectantly.

“Fine!” He threw his hands up in the air in shear exasperation. “It’s Sheppard. I’m sleeping with John Sheppard.”

Rodney was expecting shocked silence, or maybe some excited girlish squeals, but not derisive laughter. “Yeah right, Mer. I’m serious. Who is it?”

“I told you. I’m sleeping with John. I know he’s an Imperial and I’m an unregistered royal carrier, but he doesn’t seem to care about that. And is it so hard to believe? I’m attractive. Maybe not as attractive as I used to be, but I run. I lift weights sometimes. I spar with Ronon.” Jeannie didn’t need to know how sparring with Ronon was basically practice getting beat up.

Jeannie eyed him critically. “You’re serious. Well, I guess stranger things have happened. We are in a floating city in an alien ocean a galaxy away from home. So, are you going to get married?”

She looked honestly hopeful and that hurt more than the derisive laughter ever did. Rodney just crumpled. He’d been holding it in these past weeks - all these doubts that he couldn’t voice to anyone, especially John. “He says we’re together. He cares about me. He must care about me.”

Jeannie took his hands, cradling them in hers, the compassion in her eyes cutting deep. “I’m sure he does.”

“But he’s carrying another man’s baby. He says it was just a one night stand, but they’ve known each other for years. He’s back on Earth with him right now for the Registration ceremony.”

Jeannie got that sharp look in her eyes, the one that generally preceded an explosive burst of anger. “He cheated on you.”

“No, no. He was already gestating when we got together. He was going to bind, but then he almost lost the neonate. Only Ancient technology saved it.”

“He had a change of heart, because of the donor.”

“I don’t know if it was only because of the donor. He’d lost a neonate before and it really screwed him up. I think he needs to see this through. And I didn’t want him to bind. It’s still _his_ baby and I want him to have that.”

“Oh, Mer,” Jeannie whispered, reaching out and enfolding Rodney in a hug. With all the fighting he forgot how _maternal_ she could be sometimes - warm and inviting, and every inch the perfect person that Rodney would never be. “You love him.”

Rodney nodded, aware that moisture was gathering at his eyes, but refusing to just let go. He still had his dignity. “I do love him. But things are complicated. He says that he’s not going to get together with the baby’s donor, but when it comes down to it, that might be the best thing for him. The donor is a colonel. He’s saved Earth more times than I can count. He’s attractive and fit and friendly. Everybody loves him. John cares about him and thinks he’d be a great parent and I can’t disagree. He’s the kind of guy who will play catch with his son and teach him how to be friendly and charming and popular and die for him if necessary and he loves John.”

“But John says he loves you?” Jeannie asked.

“I know he does. I just don’t know if he loves me enough.”

Jeannie’s arms tightened around Rodney and she whispered, “Don’t give up hope. Don’t stop fighting for him.”

Rodney nodded, but he had reached his limit of sappy sisterly love for the day and also, they were possibly under attack from a race of space robots. He pushed Jeannie back gently, pulling up the sensor readings. “It’s following us.”

“What do we do now?” Jeannie asked.

“We talk to Elizabeth.”

***

“So the Replicators are retaliating?” Colonel Ellis did not look happy. Rodney would never have thought that he missed humorless Colonel Caldwell, but at least Caldwell wouldn’t dawdle with recriminations. He’d just do what needed to be done.

“Assuming it’s the Replicators,” Jeannie added, going right back to her usual contrary self after only a moment of fraternal bonding.

“Who else would send a device, constructed by nanites, that follows the City around, just hours after we attacked the Replicator Homeworld?”

“I’m just saying that we don’t have definitive proof that they sent it, or any proof that it’s a weapon.”

“Okay,” Elizabeth interjected, “let’s assume that it is a weapon and it is sent by the Replicators. What can we do about it?”

“We can shoot it down,” Ellis replied calmly. “My crew has analysed its defensive capabilities and it has no offensive weapons capabilities without the gate activated. The shield is on the same level as the shields on the puddlejumpers, but repeated bombardment should weaken them enough for us to destroy it.”

“Do it,” Elizabeth ordered.

“But we don’t know what it does!” Rodney protested. He was all for destroying something that might lead to horrible, horrible death for them all, but he was also curious.

“And you just told me that we can’t know what it does until it opens a wormhole and then it might be a new kind of weapon that we have never seen. Destroy it.”

Ellis nodded, giving the order to his crew. Only moments later, he reported that the device had been destroyed.

“Well, that was easy,” Rodney remarked.

“Too easy,” Elizabeth agreed.

“They’re going to just keep sending things,” Jeannie said. “If even a small number of Replicators survived, then they are capable of rebuilding their entire civilization. You heard what Oberoth said - his mind is stored in a collective and can just be recreated at will. Even Microsoft knows to keep backup files in offsite storage, so I’m sure a race of super intelligent androids can figure out the same thing. We destroyed everything on that planet, but it’s foolish to assume that’s their only base of operations. They’re robots; I doubt they have any attachment to one world in particular. I have more data to go over before we can be certain, but I’m willing to bet that the Replicators are still a threat.”

“Great, and you didn’t see fit to mention this earlier when you and Colonel Boom Boom were determined to shoot first and ask questions later?”

“We only knew about one homeworld and we knew they were building ships, most likely to attack Earth. It was the right call, Mer. And we probably didn’t help things by warning them that we might try something like this.” Jeannie looked pointedly at Elizabeth.

“Well, what’s done is done,” Elizabeth said, though she also looked frustrated. “If they are just going to keep rebuilding and sending more weapons to target us, then what are we going to do?”

They both had a point. They couldn’t just sit there when the Replicators had near-infinite resources and were highly mobile. “That’s it!” Rodney exclaimed. “The Replicators don’t have any attachment to one particular planet and neither do we. So we move the City.”

“Can we do that?” Elizabeth asked.

“With three full ZPMs? It’s a piece of cake. Well, I have do some checks and maybe a few minor repairs to the stardrive, but we were already getting it up and running. We could move the City back to Earth if we wanted to.” Rodney saw the avaricious gleam in his sister’s eyes and quickly backpedaled. “Not that we should. Or could. I mean we’re stationed here for a reason and the Wraith are still a threat. Not to mention the duty we have to the people of Pegasus and--”

“We’re not moving the City back to Earth,” Elizabeth stopped him. “What we _are_ going to do is make sure the Replicators can’t find us again. Then we can discuss strategy for how we’re going to deal with the Replicator threat in an offensive capacity.”

***

Moving the City turned out to be the easy part. Rodney was sorry that John missed flying it. He could just imagine the excited, Pavlovian response to getting to fly pretty much anything and a city would be a crowning achievement for any pilot. Still, Rodney had to admit that Lorne did a credible job of not killing them, even though he did break several valuable pieces of lab equipment and create a giant tsunami when he landed them in the ocean on New Lantia.

Rodney even managed another detente with Jeannie when they were doing the final work on the stardrive. She was a giant pain to be around, but Rodney had to admit that he could appreciate working with someone who was almost as smart as he was and could actually keep up with him on everything. And even after all these years, Jeannie’s rhythm hadn’t changed. They were just as in sync as they had been when they first deigned to collaborate on a science project competition as children. Even though they had different donors, they seemed to have inherited so many intellectual similarities from the man that raised them.

“Do you think I’d make a good donor?” Rodney asked, after it was all said and done and he and Jeannie were sitting together on a balcony overlooking the waters of the new planet.

Jeannie seemed to seriously consider it, pausing with a frown. “I think that anyone can be a good parent if they commit themselves to it.”

“So, no, in other words.” Rodney knew a non-answer when he heard one.

“No, Mer! God, you’re so sensitive. That’s not what I meant. I meant that some people are naturally child-friendly. They had wonderful, loving households where family meant everything.” Like Cameron Fucking Mitchell. “And the only model for parenthood they have is to be loving and supportive and interactive. Also, some people have more time to spend with their kids. They don’t have dangerous jobs. They aren’t prone to being controlling. They’re genuinely wholesome and nurturing.”

“So, basically, I’m doomed. Jeannie, I’m none of those things!”

“Neither am I!” Jeannie protested. “Dad had you as a bad business decision and he had me in order to open his pouch up again after that lab accident, because they didn’t have hormone treatments to do it at that time. He was distant. He constantly pitted us against each other. He withheld his affection unless we excelled beyond all reasonable expectation and he cared more about his work than he did about providing a good environment for two hyperintelligent young children. He didn’t show us how to be good parents.”

“So we’re both doomed.”

Jeannie glared, looking more determined and serious than Rodney had ever seen her, including the time where she bet Rodney that she could build a working model of a nuclear bomb faster than he could and they both got interrogated by the CIA. “No, Rodney. We have the deck stacked against us, but we are not doomed. I work all the time and let my husband run the household. I jet off to other _planets_ because my brother needs me and when I am home, I would have no clue what to do with my kids if Kaleb didn’t help me, but when I’m there, I give them all my attention. I tell them that I love them every day and I do my best to be a good role model for them. And I think I’m a damn good mom for doing it and you will be a damn good deedee if you put your mind to it.”

“But I have a high stress, very time consuming job on a top secret military base in another galaxy. How am I supposed to do everything I do now and be a good parent too?”

Jeannie sighed, looking sad but no less determined. “Part of being a good parent means making sacrifices for your children, Rodney. To be honest, I don’t think you can keep your job here and be the world’s greatest parent.”

Rodney hung his head. He’d known it all along, but it hurt to hear Jeannie say it.

“So John is better off with Cameron Fucking Mitchell.”

“Colonel Mitchell is the donor?” Jeanie asked.

“Got it in one. You know him?”

“I met him briefly a few times when I flew in to the SGC to consult with Dr. Carter. He seemed nice.”

“So you’ve noticed that he doesn’t have any of the issues we were just talking about. He’s practically G-rated already. You could animate him and he’d be a Disney prince. This is what I’m up against.”

“You’re not ‘up against’ him, Mer. John isn’t a prize to be won and competed for. He’s a human being capable of making his own decisions for his own reasons - reasons which are probably beyond your control. You’re also talking about a child, who deserves the best, regardless of what you, John, or Colonel Mitchell wants. All three of you need to take a step back and decide rationally what makes the best sense for the kid and what the three of you can live with that won’t make all your lives miserable.”

Jeannie made a lot of sense. In fact, the ideas weren’t even new. They were things that Rodney had come up with himself, he just chose not to think about them. Now that Jeannie forced him to really consider it, Rodney knew what he had to do. He had to go back to Earth and tell John everything he felt, even if it might freak John out. John was going to be a father and while John and Rodney could afford to dick around doing their usual ‘emotions, what emotions?’ routine when it was just the two of them, they owed it to the baby to resolve their issues so that it came into a world with a stable home ready and waiting. That home might or might not include Rodney, but he owed it to them all to give John enough information to make the best choice possible.

Jeannie smiled hopefully at him, giving Rodney’s arm a squeeze. Stupid military maneuvers aside, he was glad she came. Not that he’d let her know she was any help. Her ego was big enough as it was.

***

Ellis wasted no time. The day after they had safely landed on New Lantia, he’d already called a meeting of the command staff to discuss the Replicator threat. Rodney was tempted to complain that they were safe for the near future and shouldn’t they wait for the dust (or in this case, the tsunami) to settle after their move? However, Rodney didn’t mind using the meeting as an excuse to delegate the organization of repair teams and the duty to rein in the biologists, who were already chomping at the bit to explore this new world.

After taking a nosedive in Lorne’s water landing, Jeannie had compromised on a more practical outfit: flats, suit pants, and a blue blouse that matched her pale blue eyes. She didn’t wait for Ellis to start the meeting. “When we were in orbit above the Replicator homeworld, I was able to take some very detailed readings. Specifically, using a modification to the Asgard sensors that I developed, we were able to do an inventory of the Replicator base code.”

“Really?” Rodney had to admit that he was a little impressed. He was busy, what with being on a field team, keeping a city afloat, and dealing with his hot but unstable boyfriend. He didn’t have time to go over Asgard sensors in depth, but what cursory looks he had taken of them didn’t immediately reveal Jeannie’s innovation, so it had to be clever.

“Really,” Jeannie replied, her voice gritty and determined. Rodney had to admit that maybe he was partially responsible for the bitterness he heard there. He had teased Jeannie relentlessly about not being as smart as him, right up until she proved she was, at which point, he teased her harder.

“As thrilling as your tinkering may be, it doesn’t matter if you didn’t find anything useful.”

“As a matter of fact, I did find something useful. Several useful things, in fact.”

“Useful as in the location of the other Replicators?” Rodney asked. He had allied himself with Elizabeth and the civilian powers on the expedition from the beginning because he hated getting pushed around by the military (except John, of course), but if he’d known that Jeannie would eventually be in the game, he might have picked the more powerful ally. He hated that Jeannie and Ellis could keep him in the dark and then spring things on him like this.

“I have their location at the time of the scan,” Jeannie replied. “Some of them will most likely maintain those positions, as they appear to be permanent bases. The warships will undoubtedly have scattered, however.”

“Well, that’s too bad, because with Replicators it does you no good to kill one unless you’ve killed them all.” It wasn’t as though Rodney wanted Jeannie’s information to be useless, because it was all they had at this point, but he had to admit that he’d like to see her flounder a little bit.

“That’s why I don’t want to kill them.” Jeannie grinned.

Even normally unshakable Elizabeth seemed surprised. “What do you intend to do?”

“This,” Jeannie turned her computer screen around, smiling triumphantly.

“Excuse me?” Elizabeth asked, but Rodney was too engrossed in the code to pay her questions any attention.

“That’s brilliant,” he had to admit.

Jeannie beamed, basking in triumph for a second before turning to Elizabeth. “This is an embedded code that has been deactivated. We suspect by the Wraith.”

“The Wraith were able to program the Replicators?”

“They were highly motivated,” Rodney interjected, “because this is an attack code. It makes it their operational objective to destroy the Wraith.”

“So what you’re saying, Doctors, is that we can kill two birds with one stone?” Ellis asked.

“If you must put it in the simplest way possible,” Rodney sneered. He found John’s deliberate oversimplifications amusing, but Ellis didn’t have a tenth of John’s charm.

“Sounds like a plan.” Ellis ignored the sarcasm entirely. “How soon can you implement it?”

Jeannie winced. “That’s a little more difficult. In order for it to get transmitted to the entire population of Replicators, it needs to be uploaded to one of the central data nodes that distributes network-wide data. So far as I can tell, the Replicators have various substations that update certain classes of information to different individuals. Not all of the Replicators are hooked up to each of these substations, basically for security purposes. Only a limited amount of data is transmitted system-wide by a small number of data nodes - basically only operational improvements and security measures are transmitted this way. And everything in the buffer undergoes a very strict review before it’s sent out.”

“Unless it’s urgent,” Rodney pointed out.

“Exactly.”

“So what does that mean?” Ellis asked. Rodney took a moment to wonder how frustrating it must be working around himself and Jeannie, who only needed a few words to communicate. Yet another loss for all those ordinary people who didn’t have the brains to keep up this them.

“It means, Colonel Ellis, that you need to lose a fight with the Replicators,” Jeannie replied with a shit-eating grin.

“See,” Rodney felt he needed to elaborate, considering that Ellis wasn’t even as smart as the CalTech _undergrads_ Jeannie was used to dealing with, “if we let the Replicators figure out the key to our planet-wide ARG, that will be too big not to immediately transfer to the collective.”

“But if we let the Replicators figure out how to resist the PWARGs, then we’ve lost our main weapon against them.”

“A weapon we won’t need when they are dedicated to fighting the Wraith,” Jeannie grinned. “I admit it’s a gamble, Colonel, but my team at Area 51 is almost done with the second generation PWARGs, and the advantages if this works out are substantial.”

“But what are the consequences if we fail?” Elizabeth asked. She always liked to rain on Rodney’s parade.

“We’ve destroyed the Replicator fleet designed to attack Earth and the remaining ships the Replicators have are needed to defend their current bases. The PWARG mark 2 has been through testing and only needs about a week for manufacturing if we rush it,” Jeannie argued. “The Replicator ships do not have the capabilities to reach Earth in that time. Atlantis has enough ZPMs to relocate anywhere it chooses and to engage in direct combat with the Replicators if necessary. We have the advantage and it’s time we press it.”

“Don’t you think it would be wise to wait until the mark 2s are complete before engaging the Replicators?”

Ellis shook his head. “The longer we wait, the more out-of-date our intelligence becomes. We took out the main Replicator settlement. What’s left are scientific outposts, mining facilities, and a few mobile attack units. An enemy that could repair this very gateroom from a drone blast in under a day can do a lot to change the game in a week.”

“And you don’t have any problem with basically using a sentient species as cannon fodder to fight another enemy?”

Rodney rolled his eyes. He loved Elizabeth as a diplomat, a strong woman, and as a leader, but sometimes she needed to get off her high horse and face facts. “I’d rather they’re fighting the Wraith than us.”

“Besides,” Jeannie replied, “the Replicators were created to fight the Wraith. It’s in their nature, which is why the Wraith only switched off the protocol, not removed it from their base code entirely. Although creating a sentient race as weapon might be a moral failing, it was the Ancients who made the choice, not us. What we’re doing is no more immoral than using a dog to hunt. It might even make the Replicators happier, if they are even capable of happiness, to be fulfilling the central purpose of their base code.”

“I still don’t think it’s a good idea. Colonel Sheppard would . . .”

“Colonel Sheppard is not here,” Ellis jumped in. Rodney felt a momentary pang, as he was reminded of all the reasons why John wasn’t here. “And even if he were, I would still be the ranking military officer dealing with what is clearly a purely military matter. Doctors McKay, tell me what you need to make this plan work.”

“The Apollo, obviously, and a puddle-jumper-based strike team to input the code. I’ll monitor things on the Apollo and my brother can input the data into the Replicator’s central database.”

“Major Lorne, have a team assembled as soon as possible,” Ellis ordered. Lorne had been so quiet that Rodney had completely forgotten his presence. He doubted that John would’ve held his tongue, even though he also doubted Elizabeth’s assertion that he wouldn’t approve of the plan. John was never one to shy away from a potentially huge victory because of a little thing called risk.

“We’ll need a few hours to prepare the activation code,” Jeannie replied, already standing to leave the meeting, without waiting for a dismissal.

Rodney trailed her, already typing on his tablet with one hand while demanding. “Are you sure you’re needed on the Apollo? The point of the mission is for the Apollo to eventually _lose_ a battle. Colonel Ellis can do that on his own.”

“Rodney, you know as well as I do that timing is crucial on this. Somebody needs to analyze when the Replicators are close to building resistance to the PWARG and transmit the message to your team.”

“But couldn’t you do that from a cloaked jumper? Or better yet, from the City?”

Jeannie shook her head. “I’m not your baby sister anymore, Rodney. I can take care of myself.”

***

Normally, Rodney liked being right, but not when he predicted dire consequences and those consequences actually happened.

He came tumbling out of a puddlejumper with Ronon practically bouncing from the excitement of victory. Next to him, Teyla had that smug, regal grin on her face that announced pride in a job well done. There had been a few tricky moments - especially when the handheld ARGs stopped working just as they were diving back into the puddlejumper. But Rodney had the best team in the universe, even minus its fearless leader and they had just walked into an enemy stronghold and done what the US military had been trying to do for decades: win the hearts and minds of the enemy with a single keystroke.

“We did it!” he crowed, only to shy away from the look of regret and sympathy in Elizabeth’s eyes. “No, no, that’s not possible.” But that look could only mean one thing (actually two, but the other person that would merit such a look of pity directed at Rodney wasn’t here to be killed or gravely injured). “Jeannie?”

“There was an explosion,” Elizabeth replied. She looked remarkably calm, but then again, this was her job. “Carson has her in the stasis room.”

“Stasis?” Oh god, this was bad. Really bad. Rodney took off at a run, not even bothering to turn, but knowing that Ronon and Teyla were close on his heels. He even half convinced himself that he heard the ghost of John’s footfalls running along beside them.

Rodney skidded to a halt, the scene in front of him as devastating, yet underwhelming as expected. Jeannie was already frozen like sleeping beauty behind an ice-like force-field. She looked peaceful, not swamped by a medical team in surgery, or crying out in pain. Only the look in Carson’s eyes betrayed the severity of the situation.

“Is she...” Rodney didn’t know how to finish that sentence. She wasn’t dead, but there were far worse things, things that he wouldn’t say outloud about his baby sister.

“She hit her head,” Carson replied. For all his medical training, he seemed amazed that it could be something so simple. “She’s bleeding into the brain. The swelling is already at dangerous levels. We managed to get her into stasis before it could do any permanent damage to her tissues, but if we take her out, there is no way an injury like this wouldn’t lead to brain damage.”

“So she’ll live but she won’t be the same Jeannie or she rots away in stasis?” This was too much. Too much for the past two days of war and science on the brink. Too much to see and work with his sister again only to have her taken away like this.

“Rodney,” Carson sighed. Carson was terrible at this part of doctoring - every regret was etched deep into the lines of his sensitive face. “If we take her out, she won’t just be different. She’ll most likely lose all higher brain function.”

Rodney felt tears come to his eyes, the tightness in his chest that signaled a wave of overwhelming grief, Teyla’s comforting hand on his shoulder, but none of it sunk in past the layer of blatant disbelief that coated everything. “She’s my sister.”

“I know, lad.”

“There has to be something. I mean, we live in a city built by people who could heal using just their _minds_. I refuse to accept that this problem isn’t fixable. She’s in stasis. We have all the time we need to come up with . . . wait! I know, the Ascension machine. I healed Ronon when I used it. I can just use it again and heal Jeannie.”

“Rodney, that machine is dangerous. I don’t think it’s wise for you to let it alter your DNA for a third time. I’ve already found some slight deterioration in some of your stem cells as a result.”

“Then I will use it,” Teyla volunteered.

“That’s very kind of you, lass, but this isn’t a good idea for anyone. Not to mention your Wraith DNA.”

“I don’t have Wraith DNA,” Ronon pointed out. “I’ll use the machine.”

“Nobody is using the machine!” Carson yelled. “What happened to Jeannie is tragic, but there’s no guarantee that what happened to Rodney last time is even repeatable. You might not even get healing powers and you certainly might not be able to return to your former self and we can’t predict what will happen if you don’t have the ATA gene. I can’t allow it.”

“Who said we need your permission?” Ronon asked, twirling his blaster a little for emphasis, but looking to Rodney for the next move.

“He’s right,” Rodney sighed. He couldn’t ask Ronon to sacrifice himself for Jeannie. Jeannie had made the decision to go on the mission even though he’d cautioned her against it. She’d taken the risk and she wouldn’t forgive Rodney if someone else died trying to make up for her decision. “It’s too much of a risk.”

Except, Jeannie had nothing to lose at this point. _She_ could use the machine. “The machine returned me to my original state without the loss of any of my memories. Why can’t it be reprogrammed to return Jeannie to when her brain was healthy?”

Carson looked hopeful for a second but then his eyes fell. “I’m afraid it’s not that simple, Rodney. We had multiple recent scans of you. The machine could use Jeannie’s DNA to essentially overwrite what’s there now, but it knows nothing about her development. Our bodies are more than just our DNA, but the expression of that code translated through years of developmental influences.”

“Rodney and Jeannie are siblings,” Teyla pointed out. “They had similar developmental influences and similar genetics. Could you not use Rodney’s scans to fill in the gaps?”

Teyla was surprisingly astute for someone raised in a culture that didn’t even have microscopes, but there was one problem with that. “Jeannie and I aren’t that closely related. We have different donors.”

Carson looked up for where he was working on his tablet, his brow furrowed in confusion. “Not according to this. You’re full siblings, no doubt about it. And I think Teyla has a point. It will take a few days, but I think that using Rodney’s gene expression patterns as a template and finding a way to isolate the cranial area, the machine can be programmed to repair the damage to Jeannie’s brain. It’s a shame. The Ancients clearly had the level of technology to heal injuries using genetic overwrites this way, but they must have evolved widespread healing abilities before this base was built, because we haven’t found any such machines.”

“Yes, yes, fascinating, tragic history, but we have my sister to save.”

Rodney tried to focus on that fact, but he couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that he and Jeannie were full siblings. That meant . . . he didn’t know exactly what it meant, other than that their father had lied to them. He’d said that Rodney had been the child of his first clients - a couple who couldn’t conceive, but they’d gotten divorced to find procreatively compatible spouses and abandoned Rodney with his father. Their father had said that Jeannie had been conceived to open his pouch again after surgery delayed taking a new neonate and his pouch had closed up. According to their father, Jeannie’s donor had donated anonymously and under contract through the Guild organization. But if their donors were one and the same, then one of those stories had to be a lie. And, if Rodney constructed the pedigree properly, then their donor must have been plebeian.

But first thing was first: make sure Jeannie was okay. Then he could return to Earth and wring the truth out of their father.


End file.
